How To Improve Performance Of Games On Retina Macs

Retina Macs feature displays that have resolution of at least 2880 x 1440 or higher, depending on the type of MacBook or iMac you have. While this means great display quality, it is no secret that this mammoth of a resolution drives down gaming performance.

This is because while the GPUs in retina Macs are good enough to run the OS and usual apps at that high a resolution, they are not powerful enough or designed for gaming in mind.

The good news is that OS X on retina Macs lets you set lower resolution individually for apps using a hidden option. Here we show you how you can set your game or any app to run in low resolution without having to fiddle with your game’s internal settings so that odd game or two that you want to play on your retina Mac doesn’t get bogged down with performance issues.

With the Low Resolution mode set for your game – as we will show you – your experience will be greatly improved on titles that you were experiencing lower frame rates on. Sure the quality will not be as great but the overall experience will be much smoother. Here’s how to go about it:

Step 1: To begin, launch Finder on your Mac and head over to the Applications folder.

Step 2: Here, look for the game or app you wish to set Low Resolution mode for, and then right-click on it.

Step 3: Now from the resultant contextual menu, click on Get Info.

Step 4: A new window should open up showing the app’s info. Here, under the General label, tick next to the “Open in Low Resolution” option, and then simply close the window.

That’s it. You’re all set now. Simply launch the game that was troubling you earlier in the native retina resolution and you will notice a considerable improvement in the frame rate.

It is worth mentioning that this method needs to be enabled individually for each game or app you want to run in Low Resolution mode.